1,350 Gallon Reef Aquarium… Disaster

Some of you may be familiar with the phenomenal large aquarium owned by Peter Hyne in Toronto, Canada. I personally started following the build thread on Reef Central with wide eyes and floored jaw since its inception back in March, 2010. Peter put an envious amount of forethought into everything that went into the aquarium build, with the help of many leading hobbyists and industry folk alike.Unfortunately, Tuesday night disaster struck in the form of an acrylic panel letting loose at a bottom seam leading to ~1,200 gallons of water flooding the basement area. Luckily aquarium professional Shawn (“Mr. Wilson”) had the foresight to install a 4″ drain underneath the aquarium to allow water to escape should the worst of the worst happen. Even though water gushed from the aquarium, covering a 2,000 square foot area in the blink of an eye, the crew hopped onto the issue and had the mess initially cleaned up within an hour, although more cleanup was sure to follow come morning. Peter posted in his build thread with a heavy heart the series of events that occurred, and somehow at this point still seems to be in good spirits. Whereas I would be crushed, without a doubt. If you frequent that website lend a note and words of encouragement so we can hopefully have this amazing system rebooted better than ever before.The crew had a video diary running for a while that was quite enjoyable, which you can find here.

Categories:

Austin Lefevre

Austin Lefevre founded and owns Aqua Box, a group of passionate professionals who bring unique aquarium systems to fruition worldwide and offer fully quarantined and conditioned fishes to the US retail market. Austin has been a bonafide fish nerd for his entire life. When the kids in elementary school were reading Dr. Seuss, Austin was reading Jacques Cousteau. He's been in the aquarium industry since 2002 working in local fish stores, coral farms, and headed up a fish breeding program. He's been an avid SCUBA diver since the age of 12 and consistently seeks new aquatic adventures.